Automatic breadmakers for home use are becoming increasingly popular, in large part because the user is able to prepare specialty and custom loaves of bread of a type not available or not readily available at most retail stores. Another reason for the popularity of such breadmakers is that bread can be consumed when warm, i.e., immediately after baking. Warm, freshly-baked bread has a unique aroma and texture that adds to dining pleasure.
There are a number of examples of automatic breadmakers in the patent literature. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,294,166 (Takeuchi); 4,415,799 (Tanaka et al.); 4,776,265 (Ojima) and 4,984,512 (Takahashi et al.) represent but a few. Of the breadmakers shown in such patents, those of the Ojima and Takahashi et al. patents are top-loaded while those of the Takeuchi and Tanaka et al. patents are front-loaded.
Home users often insist upon a breadmaker which is sufficiently low to fit on a countertop beneath above-counter cupboards. And the majority of such users prefer a breadmaker which loads and unloads through the top rather than through a generally upright front opening.
To meet the demand for a relatively low breadmaker which is also top-loading, manufacturers have configured breadmakers with pivoting top doors hinged along the rear edge. The breadmaker shown in the Ojima patent is a good example of a breadmaker of that type. And to further accommodate customer preferences, pivoting top doors have been made to be entirely removable from the breadmaker.
Automatic breadmakers currently being sold in the United States include no provision for illuminating the product contained in the bread pan. And the patent literature generally is not to the contrary. At least, the Takeuchi, Ojima and Takahashi et al. patents do not show a lamp of any type.
This is not surprising--Underwriters Laboratories imposes extremely stringent requirements with respect to lamps powered by flexing conductors. And if a lamp is separable from its conductors, some sort of plug-and-socket arrangement is dictated. The Tanaka et al. patent shows what appears to be a lamp which is placed to one side of the breadmaker behind grill work. The grill work obstructs the path of light rays emanating from such lamp but even if unobstructed, the location of such lamp is wholly inadequate to illuminate the top of a loaf of bread.
An improved automatic breadmaker having a lamp which illuminates the chamber interior "top-down" and which is powered by conventional appliance wiring would be an important advance in the art.